Piece of cake to bake
by hidekins
Summary: μ's takes out Nico to celebrate for her birthday. Unfortunately, Maki couldn't make it, but she had her own good reasons. NicoMaki. Uploaded late due to technical difficulties with


"So where's Maki-chan?" Honoka asked as she tried to see if the red haired doctor was anywhere to be found behind Nico.

"She couldn't come," Nico answered, seemingly unaffected by the fact that her girlfriend hadn't come.

"Eeeh?! Why not?! We've had this lunch planned for like two months nya!" Rin frowned and got to Nico's side. "What's so important that she couldn't come to celebrate Nico's birthday?!"

"Maybe saving people's lives? She told me that the hospital called her in to tend to some patient, even though she asked for the day off." Nico explained and wrapped an arm around Rin's shoulder. "I don't hold it against her though, Nico will have more birthdays and Maki gets to save someone's life! That's enough of a compromise for Nico so let's stop brooding and let's get started." Nico smiled and did her signature hand gesture with her free arm.

They had all met up at a cozy family restaurant that they frequented from time to time; the food was pleasant and not too pricey but what made them stick to this place was Honoka, when she had discovered that a few employees here had recognized her and told her how big fans they had been of μ's. After that, it had become a sort of unwritten rule to always come to this place every times they needed to come together for lunch.

Nico was surprised when desserts had arrived, as her slice of strawberry shortcake had been adorned with a happy birthday message. She was even more surprised to see everyone else as perplexed as her because none of them had told any of the waiters that it was Nico's birthday. Apparently the employees whom Honoka had met knew about it and decided to surprise her on their own. After a small sing along of a happy birthday song, desserts eaten and bills paid, they all headed to next stop of Nico's birthday plan: karaoke.

The last step was all up to Maki.

When Maki got confirmation from the others that Nico arrived at the family restaurant, that was her cue on being able to finally go home with all the shopping she had done. Setting down the grocery bags, she took everything out and ran a mental checklist of her shopping: eggs, milk, sugar, all purpose flour, baking soda, vanilla extract, milk and fresh strawberries. Maki had never baked a cake before, but if she can cut open a skull and cut pieces of the most sensible organ in the human body, a cake shouldn't be so difficult. Right?

Maki set her phone down with a cake she found online. It was for a simple cake: Nico couldn't expect a New York style cheesecake out of her first try baking. First, preheat the oven to 175C, then take out a bowl and start to mix the ingredients. Maki felt blessed when she found a cake pan in the kitchen that she could use because she certainly forgot to buy one. Putting some butter in the microwave to melt it, next was mixing one and half cups of flour and baking soda each and a teaspoon of salt, the doctor started to mix the ingredients. With all the powders looking equally mixed, Maki scooped a cup of sugar and poured it along the melted butter. This whole mixing situation was much harder than she thought, her cake mix was taking a long time to look like the ones she found online. Almost 10 minutes of hard work with a whisk, Maki finally made it look like something worth putting on an online recipe, so she then added the eggs, milk and finally the vanilla extract.

Maki sighed, wiping off the sweat that had started to appear on her forehead. The kitchen was a mess, there was flour on the kitchen island, on the floor and on herself, she cracked an egg too hard and it was yet to be cleaned up, but the cake mix was finally ready. Out of mere curiosity, Maki dipped a finger in it and tasted a small sample of the mix. Her gag reflex reacted almost immediately with its astoundingly salty taste. Maki frowned, assuming she must've mixed up the sugar and salt. The cake mix was basically ruined… or was it?

"Sugar and salt balance each other, right?" Maki assumed as she did a small calculation in her head. She added exactly a teaspoon of sugar and a cup and two teaspoons of salt, so she just needed to add a cup and two teaspoons of sugar. Adding the surplus of sugar, Maki stirred for another 5 minutes, just to make sure the sugar had mixed well.

The last step before using the oven was buttering the cake pan. Maki had to take out another bar of butter and she buttered the plate by rubbing its inside with a side of the bar. Once prepared, she poured in the whole cake mix. Almost filling the entire plate, she opened the oven, slid it in and now Maki just had to sit pretty for more or less 30 minutes. The redhead took a look at the complete and utter mess that she made of the kitchen and considered cleaning it, but right now she just wanted to rest. She had time to spare as the cake baked and sat down for a well deserved rest.

"maki-chan! nico-chan just left!" Maki's phone buzzed with a message from Rin. She quickly checked the time, only 15 minutes had passed and Nico would be home in 10 minutes, at best. The cake wasn't going to be ready in time. With a whimper, Maki quickly tried to come up with a solution. With no other choice, she went back to the oven and turned it up it to its maximum temperature.

Nico sighed as she walked up the stairs to her apartment; she had had a fun time with her friends, and it got really fun when Eli decided to order some drinks during karaoke. That alone made her 25th birthday stand out, but she really wanted it to be special. She did her best to not show it, but those with more keen eyes must've picked up that Maki's absence was affecting her. When Nico reached her door, she picked up on an odd smell. It smelled like… a bakery? Confused, she opened the door and was hit with a wave of warm air and the aroma of baking.

"Happy birthday, Nico-chan," Maki greeted her by the table with a bright and big smile that Nico didn't see very often. She almost looked proud of herself, the kind of look that she always gave her when Maki was particularly clingy and looked for appraise. That's when Nico noticed the chocolate cake sitting on the middle of the table.

"I'm home," Nico greeted her and kicked off her shoes to the side and took off the ribbons on her pigtails. Walking up to Maki, she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a kiss. "Did you lie to me about getting called in for work?"

"Maybe, but this was a bit harder than a surgery," Maki smiled as she pressed her forehead to Nico's. Nico snorted at the joke and let go.

"Can I eat it now?" Nico asked and sat down after getting a nod from her girlfriend. Maki brought her a plate, a fork and a knife to cut the cake.

Under expectant amethyst eyes, Nico slowly cut herself a slice and served it, taking the single strawberry adorning the cake and popping it into her mouth. Next, she took a piece of the fluffy cake in her fork. "Your chocolate cake doesn't smell very chocolate-y." Nico commented before taking the piece in her mouth.

"U-um… well, it's not chocolate. I-it's vanilla but I might've burned it a bit." Maki confessed. "I took too long making the cake mix so I had to rush the baking."

Nico's gag reflex immediately kicked in as her tongue touched the cake, wincing at its tremendously salty flavor and the gooey texture. Nico noticed the glint of expectancy in Maki's eyes so she did her best to keep her smile, but her efforts were crumbling down as she tried to chew the salt mine of half raw cake and gulped it down. Her stomach was refusing to take it but Nico powered through it, but by the time she looked up at Maki, she was already looking down at the floor.

"It was awful, wasn't it," Maki mumbled more of a statement rather than a question.

"N-no! It was just," Nico's gag reflex kicked in again, interrupting her, "uh… unique. Not catered to Nico's quite picky preferences!"

"You don't have to sugarcoat it Nico, I could tell from your face that it was the most terrible thing you've had to taste." Maki sighed and fiddled awkwardly with her apron.

Nico got up and took Maki's hands in her own and gently rubbed them with her thumbs. "It's okay Maki-chan, I'm really happy you made this for me." Maki sniffled and looked Nico in the eyes. "I mean it." The birthday girl felt relief as she finally saw Maki smile back at her.

"Although…" Maki tilted her head, confused that Nico talked so soon after the moment they just shared, "I haven't really eaten cake yet, well, besides that." Nico pointed at the one sitting on the table, "so… do you want to bake a cake? Together?"


End file.
